"An enjoyable, well-crafted little book."—The Complete Review Translated from the Italian, this winner of the Prix Medicis Etranger for 1987 is an enigmatic novel set in modern India. Roux, the narrator, is in pursuit of a mysterious friend named Xavier. His search, which develops into a quest, takes him from town to town across the subcontinent.

Antonio Tabucchi describes his novella Indian Nocturne (winner of the Medicis Prize in its French translation) as 'an insomnia' but 'also a journey... in which a Shadow is sought.' In his provocatively elusive but totally compelling way, Tabucchi takes us along on a nightmarish trip through the Indian subcontinent, producing sensations by turns exotic, sensual, menacing, and oppressive, as the profound weight of an ancient culture settles on the unwary traveler.

The Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies is a two-volume reference book containing some 600 entries on all aspects of Italian literary culture. It includes analytical essays on authors and works, from the most important figures of Italian literature to little known authors and works that are influential to the field. The Encyclopedia is distinguished by substantial articles on critics, themes, genres, schools, historical surveys, and other topics related to the overall subject of Italian literary studies. The Encyclopedia also includes writers and subjects of contemporary interest, such as those relating to journalism, film, media, children's literature, food and vernacular literatures. Entries consist of an essay on the topic and a bibliographic portion listing works for further reading, and, in the case of entries on individuals, a brief biographical paragraph and list of works by the person. It will be useful to people without specialized knowledge of Italian literature as well as to scholars.

Antonio Tabucchi's novel Requiem is set in Lisbon on a torrid July day. The unnamed narrator - clearly a persona of Tabucchi himself - awaits a midnight appointment on a quay of the Tagus. His time is filled with a succession of encounters with residents of the Portuguese capital, and with late friends and relations. Part travelog, part autobiography, part fiction, Requiem at once becomes a homage to a country and a people and a farewell to the past; requiescat in pace. In all this, the narrator himself remains shadowy, walking in a dream atmosphere. The midnight appointment approaches. The narrator meets at last with another unnamed writer, now long dead, though the evidence points to the great poet Fernando Pessoa. Requiem thus ends as an act of succession, the narrator's claim to a literary forebear who, like himself, is of evasive and manifold personalities.

The Cambridge Companion to the Italian Novel provides a broad ranging introduction to the major trends in the development of the Italian novel from its early modern origin to the contemporary era. Contributions cover a wide range of topics including the theory of the novel in Italy, the historical novel, realism, modernism, postmodernism, neorealism, and film and the novel. The contributors are distinguished scholars from the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, and Australia. Novelists examined include some of the most influential and important of the twentieth century inside and outside Italy: Luigi Pirandello, Primo Levi, Umberto Eco and Italo Calvino. This is a unique examination of the Italian Novel, and will prove invaluable to students and specialists alike. Readers will gain a keen sense of the vitality of the Italian novel throughout its history and a clear picture of the debates and criticism that have surrounded its development.

Color drawings accompany a collection of well-known nursery rhymes.